Feedback & Reports

8 barbel caught between three of us to approximately 7lbs - don't weight any of them unless they look near double figures. Also a small chub caught, and plenty of fish topping throughout the day. All fish taken on pellet from slower water, sometimes leaving the rod in for up to an hour before it went over. The fish were all in immaculate condition, from immaculate surroundings. Lovely day - thanks for all the advice and help at the WUF.

One barbel about 8lb and 2 Chub between two of us.

Following the previous days heavy rain we fished whitehouse for the first time. It was unseasonably cold (13c), drizzly with low cloud and the river was carrying a little extra water but not coloured. The fishing was tough, I managed a barbel and 2 chub and my friend a barbel, but best was only 3 1/2lb. Next day we fished Backney, the rain had finally stopped and it was warmer. Overnight the river had risen a couple of feet, was highly coloured and pushing through like an express train. We struggled to find many fishable spots but eventually settled in acouple of swims near the bottom of the length. My friend had 2 barbel around 6lb, I had a barbel of 7lb14oz, a 3lb chub and to my surprise a 13lb 9oz common carp. All fish were caught on 8 or 10mm hallibut pellets, meat and boilies were also tried without success. I would like to try both fisheries again under more normal summer conditions and Backney in particular was a lovely tranquil spot. Many thanks to all at WUF, the maps and directions were excellent. You are providing a great service and we'll be back next year.

Like all of us waiting for the rain to arrive and found we were lucky with a foot of water on the river! Started to fish at the top end of the field in the deep slower water. Was bit slow to start catching chub most of the day and ending up with 12 chub from 2lb to 4lb followed up with 4 barbel between 5lb and 8lb loosing 2 (with a shake of the head) all caught on the meat and pellet! However my fishing buddy done much better catching 10 barbel all between 5lb and 8lb and loosing 2 also! caught steady on pellet! even with the 20 or so swans feeding infront of us!

1 barbel and a few chub between three of us. Very hard and the river as low as I have seen it.

A nice fishery with the river a little low. However the fish were very hard to find and only a couple of smallish chub. Many canoeists were a real pain, swimming off the croys and a couple capsised in my swim.

Greeted with very low water conditions, and relatively bright skies. Fishing proved very difficult with only 3 barbel and 10 chub being caught.
Hopefully fishing will improve when there is a decent amount of water in the river. Nice to see that there are a few more swims marked, but would be better if flat fishing platforms could be introduced.

Another early Saturday start found K.B and myself on the road towards White House for a return trip hoping to find the river in better condition than a month previous. Arriving around 7.30am we were pleased to find that the river was up compared to are last visit and carrying some colour. Trying likely looking swims and giving them a couple of hours before moving on showed that the day was not going to be one of the best we have had on the river and when in the early afternoon the opposite bank was the venue for a well attended match this did result in the number of swims available to fish being reduced. By the end of the day I think the catch was down due to the angling pressure from the other bank. Sunday was another early start and with Middle Hill court the venue hopes were up for a better days fishing. Having read previous catch reports we fished the areas that had done well and indeed the fishing was much improved on the day before with both of us getting amongst some nice Barbel with the average weight up on White House. Over the weekend are tally for Barbel reached 40 fish to a top weight of 8lb 13oz.

The only concerning thing that I have to report is that nearly every Barbel and all of the couple of Chub that we caught had Argulus or the Common fish louse on them. I don't pretend to be a marine biologist but having checked on the enter-net I strongly belive that this is what they are. I don't believe there is much anyone can do to eradicate this crustacean but we took great care in removing every one from the fish we caught, I really do hope that this is not going to affect the fish in the amazing river.

Many thanks to the WUF. Top job done by all involved.

2nd time with the Wye & Usk, first time in March snow on ground and the river tidal, nothing whatsoever. On Friday 23 July had a 3lb Chub and 9lb barbel and mate of mine had a two barbel 4lb and another 9lb. Great fight with the bigger ones and lots of activity, warm, cloudy intervals, river high, used Halibut pellets. Really a great day in stunning surroundings.

The river looked perfect carrying plenty of colour but results didn't reflect this. 4 rod totals as follows:

Fri. 23/7 Backney - 3 barbel (best 7-4)
Sat. 24/7 Middle Hill - 4 barbel (best 7-10)
Sun. 25/7 Whitehouse - 9 barbel (best 7-5)

The barbel were interspersed with a few chub (best 4-8) but not in any significant numbers. All of us "rang the changes" with baits but all the barbel were caught on either pellet or meat.

It was extremely disappointing to find other anglers on all of the beats we had booked (bearing in mind all had a limit of 4 coarse rods)! We knew this was possible at Backney so this was no issue but another angler arrived to fish Middle Hill Court and there were 3 other anglers sharing Whitehouse with us. As the number of fishable swims is not particularly high on these beats, the presence of other anglers did restrict opportunities to rove up & down the beats and it certainly does nothing to alleviate clearly increasing angling pressure.

In coarse angling terms the cost of fishing these beats is relatively high but is acceptable when exclusivity is factored in. We definitely left feeling a little cheated and it would be nice to have some explanation of the situation!

** WUF Note **

We were sorry to hear the enjoyment of this angling trip was affected by extra anglers on the water. While we endeavour to ensure a degree of exclusivity, the beats do sometimes experience poaching activity (as do all fisheries). Having investigated this report, we believe that the other White House and Middle Hill Court anglers were fishing without permission. Should anyone come across what they believe to be poaching on a Passport water, we request they contact the Foundation as soon as possible, leaving a message if out of office hours. Although difficult at weekends, we can sometimes have the owner, a bailiff or one of our habitat team members attend the scene.